Ranking Ash's *companions'* rivals

[Saraneon]

Hello, I don't know if this has been done before but it's basically a ranking of Ash's companions' rivals. Or you can list down your favourite and least favourite. Eg. Ash's companions in Unova (Iris and Cilan) have rivals Georgia and Burgundy respectively. You may include them in your favourites or least favourites, but if you're ranking everyone then please include them lol.

Some companions' rivals include (companions' names are in bold):
May and Drew and Harley and Soledad and Jessidia
Dawn and Zoey and Kenny and Jessilina and Ursula and kinda Nando (?)
Iris and Georgia
Cilan and Burgundy
Serena and Miette and Shauna and Aria and Nini and Jessilee
Sophocles and Horacio

Also please don't say "Brock and Cilan" are rivals since they seem to have similar roles (as Ash's mentor) during their travels. Similarly, don't say "Max and Bonnie" or "Ash's female companion and another female companion".

 

[wobbanut]

I like all of the rivals except for Ursula. Dear God I hated the heck of her. I didn't like Harley at first either, but he grew on me.

 

[JustAStatistic]

I liked Dawn's rivals + Drew the most so they're at the top

I remember aggressively not caring for Serena's rivals, so they're at the bottom

Shout out to the dragon buster for being interesting conceptually (dragons were op in gen 5), so upper middle for her

Everyone else fills up the middle

 

[Leonhart]

I'm personally not going to count someone like Saori since she was only a temporary rival, and I use the term rival loosely since she had no negative feelings towards Haruka. Shuu and Nozomi seemed like the most competent rivals in the series as far as Satoshi's friend's rivals are concerned.

 

[Applecorp]

Just from the ones I remember: Soledad > Zoey > Drew > Harley > Kenny > Georgia > Ursula > Miette.

 

[SerenaRulez]

Zoey, Drew and Soledad are the strongest then comes Kenny, Georgia, Nando and maybe Ursula then in a separate tier I would put Shauna, Miette, Burgundy and the other rivals that weren't that good in battles.

 

[Ubermuk]

It's a tie between Drew and Zoey for strongest rival among Ash's buddies. Dunno who would win between those 2.

The weakest rivals were Burgundy and Shauna and everybody else lies somewhere in between...

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Harley is the best rival hands down

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Ursula, harley and drew were three best rivals, then you got zoey who was also good and friendly main rival for a change which was unique back then.

 

[RafaSceptile]

Great: Drew, Zoey
Good: Harley, Ursula, Nando
Decent: Soledad, Jessie (all variants), Kenny
Meh: Georgia, Burgundy, Aria, Horacio
Plz not again: Shauna, Miette, Nini

 

[Ragnarok4]

Horacio is definitely the worst

 

[Kuzehiko]

May's.
No contest here imo lol

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

A Tier
-Drew

B Tier
-Harley
-Georgia
-Ursula

C Tier
-Solidad
-Kenny
-Zoey
-Burgundy

D Tier
-Shauna
-Miette
-Nini

 

[mysticalglacia]

Burgundy and Harley are some of the best, courtesy of them being hilarious. Though Drew is the best overall as an actual character.

 

[Lacuna]

Zoey was definitely my personal favorite. I thought her personality complemented Dawn's perfectly, plus she was one of the first friendly rivals we had before that was the norm. It's been a while since I've revisited AG but I remember Drew being pretty dang cool as well.

 

[DatsRight]

I feel like I'm among the few that didn't really like Harley. He was an obnoxious 'catty gay' stereotype dumbed down for inoffensive kids show humour, while also never getting his proper comeuppance to balance out what an annoying jerk he was.

I might also just have bias since I always thought AG was when TR's treatment got so pathetic it became depressing. Having it so "they're such losers that even THIS prissy weirdo makes them his *****' felt like the limit. Even more so since it felt like he took Jessie's spot in the competition after watching DP, where there was no other catty comedic rival and so Jessie was allowed to do well and get focus.

I liked watching Jessie in DP and XY because of this, since it was interesting to see something TR were allowed to develop on and get better at instead of just cheating and failing each time. I will admit however they felt secluded from the main characters and didn't really feel like they contributed to their development as rivals much. It was more just the catharsis of the lame bad guys getting some victories for a change.

Zoey was good as a rival and mentor to Dawn, though I see why some find it divisive Dawn NEVER beat her. Though it wasn't like Zoey was infallible, she lost other times. Some people just have your number.

The BW-SM rivals tend to be amusing characters, but kind of ineffectual. Sometimes they have good chemistries with the companions but rarely do they feel like a proper challenge. I don't think any of them even beat the companion once most of the time.